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Hara-kiri: The Death of a Samurai: Cannes 2011 Review

4:16 PM PDT 5/19/2011 by Maggie Lee

Director Takashi Miike's remake of Masaki Kobayashi's "Harai-kiri" features a strong central performance by Japanese actor Ebizo Ichikawa

CANNES – Anyone expecting a 3D film on Japanese ritual suicide by the director of such ultra-gory fare as Ichi the Killer to have guts and entrails squirting out from the screen has another thing coming. Hara-kiri: The Death of a Samurai, Takashi Miike’s remake of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 Hara-kiri is expensively mounted with comfortably unobtrusive 3D effects, ceremoniously slow, and oh so respectable. As a critique of the hypocrisy and inhumanity of bushido it lacks a bitter sting, nor does it search for a new angle to the subject.

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